


Doctor Doctor

by Herminbean



Series: Doctor Doctor [13]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Multiple Doctors (Doctor Who), One Shot, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25153564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herminbean/pseuds/Herminbean
Relationships: First Doctor & Thirteenth Doctor
Series: Doctor Doctor [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1213392
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Doctor Doctor

“Fascinating.”

The darkness seemed to spread out forever in every direction. The Doctor had witnessed darkness before. After all, he travelled through the void of space. He had studied black holes as a child. But this was even darker. A darkness that seemed to wrap around him. Yet, when he held his hand out, it was clear as day. He glanced down at his shoes. Not even slightly concealed. If this place, wherever it was, was this dark, there was no way he should be able to see himself this easily, if at all.

The Doctor took a few steps through the darkness. He felt a little resistance, almost like some unseen force held him back. His legs felt a little heavy. He reached inside his coat pocket and pulled a handkerchief out. Holding it out in front of his face, he dropped it. It floated gently to the ground.

“Gravity seems somewhat normal.” He murmured to himself. There must be some explanation for the heavy feeling.

Deep in thought, the Doctor went to retrieve his handkerchief from the floor. Much to his surprise, however, it wasn’t there. He plucked his monocle from his pocket, held it to his eye and scanned the ground slowly. True, it was very dark, but he could clearly see his feet, so he shouldn’t have any problem finding his bright handkerchief.

“Curious.”

He tucked his monocle back into his pocket. He didn’t want to risk dropping that on the floor. It would be a shame if it vanished as well. He didn’t want to think about if he fell himself. 

Deciding it wasn’t worth worrying about, the Doctor did the only thing he could do in this void. He walked. Each step felt heavier than the last. And yet, it never seemed to stop him. He walked forward as easy as if the weight weren’t there at all. Taking note of that strange detail, he continued on.

It was unclear if the darkness was just so thick, he couldn’t see through it, or if there was truly nothing here. The Doctor was constantly prepared for an unseen obstacle to materialize out of the darkness. Walking face first into a wall would be incredibly undignified, even if he would be the only one who would witness it.

He lost track of how long he walked for. It felt like hours, but also no time at all. After this short time of eternity, the Doctor decided that this place made absolutely no sense at all.

And then he saw something. A blur. He squinted. A slightly less blurry blur. That was at least some progress. The Doctor decided that the blur was his best chance of finding any sort of answer, and so he started his long trudge across the short distance.

As he got closer, the blur seemed to take shape. A humanoid shape. Perfect, he wasn’t alone. They had their back to the Doctor. He made out the back of a head. Blonde hair. Not much to go on. The Doctor cleared his throat to get the figures attention.

“Why hello there.” He said gently.

The figure spun around; arms raised in a defensive pose. The Doctor didn’t recognize them. He was certain that they would have stuck in his mind if he had. Not many people wear a cricket jumper and a stick of celery with such confidence. 

“Well then my boy.” The Doctor said, hooking his jacket with his thumbs. “How are we going to get out of this one?”

# ___________________ 

The sonic buzzed at the darkness, the yellow light illuminating as far as it could. The Doctor checked the readouts. No results. That was disconcerting. She gave another few buzzes for good measure and checked again.

“Nothing.” She said, frustrated.

“Understatement of the year, I’d say.”

The Doctor had to agree with her past self. Wherever they were, it was somehow not showing up on any reading. All things considered; they should not be able to stand on it.

Much to the Doctors annoyance, her old self pulled out his own sonic and began buzzing, as if he somehow was going to find something she did not. She figured that being the one lifeguard in the time war, he had lost some of his manners. Still, at least he wasn’t the grandpa yet. This regeneration might be blunt, but grandpa was just intense.

“This doesn’t quite match my mini universe.” He said. “It’s a totally different kind of nothingness.”

The Doctor almost slapped herself on the head. How did she miss that? When she had bumped into this version she was surrounded by nothingness. And now, here they both were again surrounded by nothing. That was one heck of a coincidence.

“How can there be different kinds of nothingness?” She asked, her nose scrunched up in thought. “Surely nothing kind of covers every kind of nothing.”

“Apparently not.”

# ___________________ 

The Doctor watched his future self strut around the darkness in circles. It didn’t take too long for him to become convinced that this man who wore vegetables was in fact him. Something about his mannerisms, even though different from his own, seemed so familiar to him. As the first and original incarnation, it was always a little weird encountering his future selves. He never had the privilege of remembering, so every time it felt like the first time. He knew of the effects of regeneration of course. That he would change everything about himself. Yet, he had only ever known one Doctor. Him. Seeing some other face in his place was disconcerting to say the least.

“My boy, what are you doing?” The Doctor asked trying to hide his irritation. “You’re making my head spin.”

“Firstly, let’s get one thing straight.” His future self retorted. “I am older than you. Calling me “boy” makes no sense.”

The Doctor knew that was true, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t bring himself to accept that this fresh-faced boy was older than himself. He could have argued the fact but put it to one side.

“What do you hope to achieve by walking in circles?” He asked.

“I’m testing the gravity. My legs feel…”

“…heavy?”

The future Doctor gave a knowing nod. He took a few more steps, looking down at his legs as he went.

“Yes, I noticed that too.” The Doctor said thoughtfully. “The gravity is fine, it would seem.”

The future Doctor took another few steps, stopped, then took a deep sigh.

“I have to say,” He straightened his celery. “I am not a fan of this place.”

“I’m beginning to agree with you.” The Doctor said. “Perhaps you’re half right with the walking plan. But might as well make some progress rather than making circles.”

The future Doctor shot him a scowl, quickly followed by a smirk. “I can get behind that plan, my boy.”

# ___________________ 

“So, any theories?”

The Doctor looked around to her comrades. Frustratingly, neither of them raised their hands. In fact, the one with the bow tie appeared like he was being puppeteered by some unseen spectre. He was spinning on the spot, his arms waving around erratically. Did she really use to do that? Now she thought about it, did she still do that?

“Can you please stand still?” The other one snapped.

“Doubtful.” The bow tie one said without even glancing over. “This is fascinating. My arms feel so floaty, yet my legs…”

He jumped up and down on the spot, although his impacts made no sound. The Doctor wasn’t sure what she was expecting. How could nothing make sound?

“Do you think it’s possible that gravity is heavier the lower we get to the ground?” She offered.

The bow tie thought for a second, then without warning threw his hands to the ground and flipped his legs in the air. He stayed like that for a few seconds, waving his feet in the air.

“Hard to tell.” He said before flipping back to his feet.

The Doctor scrunched her nose up again. Something was off. In fact, a lot of things were off, but something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She looked over at the bow tie as he continued to test his hands. It almost felt like she missed a big step. It felt wrong.

She would have been more worried, but she was at least surrounded by the greatest minds she knew. Hers. And bow ties. And the fancy one. And the one with the rainbow jacket.

# ___________________ 

The Doctor felt like his legs should be aching by this point. He wasn’t a young man anymore. His body was getting on, and he often found his joints aching whereas he used to be able to outrun everyone on Gallifrey. He looked over at his future self, and thought that at the very least, he’ll be full of energy again once he regenerates. Right now, however, despite walking with heavy legs, he felt himself spurred on. 

It occurred to him that they hadn’t said anything in quite a while. He didn’t hate silence, but at this point he almost felt obligated to say something.

“It just keeps going, doesn’t it?”

The Doctor turned. He hadn’t said a word. It was the wild haired one in the blue suit. 

“Sorry to break the silence.” He shrugged gave a manic smile. “Just figured it had been a while since we said anything.”

The Doctor frowned. Had he always been there? He had met the celery one, they had walked for a while….and then they had met this one. Of course they had. Didn’t they?

# ___________________ 

The Doctor could barely hear herself think. But she could certainly hear herself talk. It was a bit hard not to. She looked around the darkness. Although at this point, a lot of it had been filled up. The bow tie Doctor was busy playing around with the short one’s umbrella and seemed thrilled to bits by it. Behind her she could just make out a recorder tooting away tunelessly. She was fairly certain she heard one of them exclaim “fantastic”, but whether that was directed at the music, she couldn’t say. 

“Crazy, isn’t it?”

The Doctor turned to the voice. It was someone she didn’t recognize. Not the only one, of course. 

“Took the words right out of my mouth.” She agreed.

# ___________________ 

He wanted to call for silence. It seemed pointless at this point though. Who would hear him? He looked around. If meeting on of his future regenerations filled him with dread, this was undoubtably a nightmare. He lost track of how many he had bumped into. He never dreamt there could be this many. Wasn’t he only capable of regenerating twelve times? How was there so many? And how were they all here? Meeting one of his future selves could be disastrous. This many, how was the universe not imploding? Although, maybe it had. Maybe only he had survived. If that were the case, he was right. This really was a…

The Doctor stopped suddenly in his tracks. The thought hit him like a train. He was vaguely aware the noise around him die down bit by bit. Each face seemed to gloss over. A ripple effect from him all the way to his future as each one figured it out.

# ___________________ 

“…nightmare.”

It hit her like a train. Where the thought had come from, she couldn’t say. But it made perfect sense. The heavy legs. The floaty feeling. The bizarre jumps in logic. How they could all be here. This was a dream. She was asleep. They all were. It was common knowledge that time travel had always been possible in dreams. And, technically, as far as the universe and time was concerned, they weren’t meeting at all. That would explain the lack of universal destruction.

That explained the how. But the why, that was still a mystery. It’s not like this happened every time she fell asleep. Why would they all come here? Why right now? Who’s dream where they even in? Was she flashing backwards? Forwards? Were they all flashing to her?

It was then that they all noticed the child.

# ___________________ 

The boy looked up at the sky. It glowed its usual brilliant orangey red. As many times as he looked up at it, he never failed to marvel at its beauty. Gallifrey truly was the most beautiful place in the universe. 

As far as the boy knew, anyway. As much as he loved the sky, he did often dream about what was beyond. The Timelords would constantly tell them that there was nothing out there but danger. As many times as he asked for stories of the universe, most of them would end with something horrific.

The boy found this a little hard to believe. How could this be the only place through time and space where nothing bad happened? And if that turned out to be true, why weren’t they trying to help? It sounded like the beings our there, no matter who they were, really could use some guidance. 

He kicked at a pebble, watching it clink across the sandy ground, flicking up specks of red. The boy found it rather interesting. Such a small thing, sent hurtling in a certain way, was capable of causing so much flecks of colour to stir. He knew how small he was in the grand scheme of things. But maybe, just maybe, given the right angle, he could create a stir of colour as well.

A flurry of voices drifted from around an upcoming corner. They sounded full of joy, but something about them drew his attention, and not in a good way. He wasn’t a stranger to the mocking tone in the voice of a bully.

The boy found his legs taking him around the corner. He barely registered that he was running. Sure enough, three older boys were standing over a crumpled mass on the floor. They wore some Timelord robes, although clearly made for the younger Timelords. They barely had any colour to them, and they hung loosely from the three boys.

“Look at him, he got dirt on my robes.” The thin one spat in mock anger. “We could have you locked up.”

“It would be a waste of a cell.” One of the others said, laughing an irritating laugh. 

The biggest one knelt over the crumpled mass. “Did you hear what we said? You messed up our robes.”

The mass raised its hand apologetically. “Forgive me little lords. I was working. It’s messy work, I can’t really control where the dust goes.”

“Little lords?” The big one snapped. “We are Timelords. What are you? How many regenerations do you have?”

“None. I never went to the academy.” The old man tried to sit up, but the bigger boy knocked him down.

“And quite right too. They don’t let in just any old nobody.” The annoying when giggled.

“I don’t know, I got in.”

The three boys turned. He didn’t even realize it was him who said it, but the boy almost instantly regretted opening his mouth. Still, they weren’t picking on the old man anymore.

“Who asked you?” The skinny one snarled.

The boy found his legs taking a step closer. “I don’t tend to wait to be asked.” He motioned to the boy’s robes. “And don’t worry too much about the robes. I always found that they were ruined when they added that collar.”

The annoying boy rubbed his hand across the massive collar sticking behind his head self-consciously. The bigger one took a threatening step forward.

“You’ve got a big mouth.”

“I’ve been told.”

He was aware of the skinny one sliding behind him. He looked down at the old man. He raised his eyebrows. The man seemed to get the message as he slowly got to his feet.

“No way he got into the academy. I’ve seen him come from the outlands. How could someone like him get in?” The skinny one sneered.

“It’s true, I don’t really have the background to get in.” The boy turned to face the skinny boy. “That’s why I had to rely on talent.”

The skinny one opened his mouth but found no retort. The big one stepped in instead.

“What’s your aim here? You asking to join the filthy old man?”

“Actually,” The boy smirked. “my aim was to help him get away.”

The three boys looked back quickly. The old man was gone. They had lost their plaything. The big one turned back to the boy, anger in his eyes.

“And how do you plan to get away?”

“Honestly, I hadn’t quite got that far yet,” The boy tried to keep his voice from shaking.

He was aware of a clenched fist hitting him in the back of the head. Then darkness took him.

# ___________________ 

The Doctor looked at the boy. He had his back to them all, but they all knew who it was. There was no doubt in their minds. And the reason for them being here became clear. Together, they stepped forward.

The boy spun around, shocked. Behind him, in the darkness, there were countless people. And yet, it seemed like there was just one. It stepped towards him. Yet he didn’t feel threatened. It was almost comforting. The figures where all as one, and they knelt down to the boy’s level.

“There’s no shame in wanting to run.”

Many voices seemed to come from the figure. The boy saw glimpses of details here and there. Sometimes a certain voice came through clearer than the others. He watched, fascinated.

“Being afraid is OK. You will find it happen a lot through your life. Sometimes you might find yourself lose your way.”

The boy felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“But all you have to do is look back to find your way. See who you were and who you strive to be.”

“I just want to help.” The boy said, voice shaking.

He could swear he saw the figure smile. “You will. We’re here to show you that. And to remind us who we are.”

The boy didn’t fully understand. He did find that the second he stepped in to help that man, he wasn’t sure if he did the right thing. This dream felt like the confirmation he needed. He was here to help.

He felt arms wrap around him. A smile began to spread on his face. He was sure he was going to fall a lot through his life. But one thing was certain. He was going to help, no matter what anyone said.

The darkness began to fade, as did the figure. The boy looked up at the red sky that was materializing in front of him. He knew at that moment that he would get out there. Even as the memory of the figure faded from his mind, the feeling he had gained remained. 

The boy was knocked down. 

The Doctor woke up.


End file.
